Transcript of an interview I recorded with Nic Maeder of GOTTHARD - 20200206. Full article here. MAL-
On the line, Nick Maeder from Swiss band, GOTTHARD. Nick, thanks for taking my call. NIC- My pleasure, how you going? MAL- Doing very well. Now just refresh our memories. What were you doing prior to joining GOTTHARD? NIC- So, just prior Actually, I was the one I mean, I'd had quite a few bands in Australia, but I thought the last one that I had was a band called MAEDER. Actually, just just before and, and then really just that kind of didn't you know, that did stop that for a while. And I think we finished that band for about a year or so. And, and, yeah, and then I'd actually started doing covers for the first time in my life, you know, and yeah, and then just sort of had this audition with the with the GOTTHARD guys in Switzerland and got the job and moved to Switzerland. You know, it's been almost sort of 10 years now. MAL- Were you aware of GOTTHARD before you came about, before this audition came about? NIC- Yeah, I mean I'm I'm actually I'm Swiss so I'm,I was actually born here and my whole family's from you and my parents migrated to Australia when I was about two years old. So I sort of grew up between between both countries. And and so I played in bands in Switzerland and in Australia, and so I still still had a lot of friends in Switzerland and still had, you know, still still kind of close to the music scene here as well. And yeah, just really just a friend of mine. I mean, I knew actually who played actually played in the festival with GOTTHARD back in 94 or something in Switzerland. And I remember it actually, I, my band, we opened for the for them and that they were headlining the festival already back then. So. So I knew about the band, but I'd been living in Australia for a long time at that point, so I didn't really follow the career of the band that much, but I obviously I knew that their singer had died. And, and yeah, and a friend of mine actually told me that they were, you know, that they were doing auditions and and suggested that I audition and so that's sort of how I knew about and then yeah, just kind of joined, you know, auditioned along with, I think those something like 450 other people (Mal-Holy crap) and auditioning as well, yes, a lot of people have auditioned for this thing. And so, somehow I kind of, you know, made it through but it was, um, it was a long process, you know, that the whole auditioning thing. I mean, I came, I actually came to Switzerland twice, I think, just for auditioning, so three times by the time you know, but so, yeah, actually three times I did the trip three times and, and the whole process took about eight months, you know, from the from the first day that I actually Sent them recordings of my voice on their songs and then actually, you know, went over there and played with them recorded with them and went back to Australia and went back again to do some songwriting with them, because they were, they're kind of shortlisted me and, and wanted to see, you know, how the songwriting together would be and what the band would sound like if I was, you know, in it doing new songs. So we, we sort of, you know, I spent a couple of weeks with them writing some songs. And yeah, which actually then actually wrote that very first song that we released when they kind of introduced me as a new singer a song called 'Remember, it's me'. And, yeah, and then just kind of, you know, eventually they just they picked me and I moved here and, and started MAL- Look, I get the impression on the internet that they would have been incredibly big shoes to fill coming in. Did you feel that pressure? NIC- Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it was you know, We're talking here about the biggest Swiss, you know, biggest Swiss band, they're kind of in the mainstream here and their singer was a very big personality he re, and he's death was was obviously heavily . And so, of course coming in, you know, I kind of woke up one morning and I was in all the newspapers and on TV and everywhere. I mean, it was a big, really big deal. You know, so it was Yeah, really difficult times actually. In the beginning, it was pretty scary, actually. But I think we were pretty lucky. I mean, the I mean, I was just very, extremely lucky that the fans actually accepted me and, and really encouraged me a lot. I mean, they were really, really encouraging and they want that, you know, you could tell the fans really wanted it to work, you know, and they were there and they were amazing, you know, so I think we're, we were very, very lucky that we were able to make it work and continue you know, especially with a band that already for the first 20 years of its career had, you know, one singer you know. MAL- It's almost like the Swiss equivalent of replacing Jimmy Barnes in COLD CHISEL isn't it? NIC- Yeah, yes. But yeah, MAL- Let's flash forward. Right. We've got a new album coming out. It's a 13th album from GOTTHARD. It's coming out on the 13th of March and it's called 13. Tell us about it. NIC- Well, yeah, well, we just, you know, we the previous album, actually, we did this acoustic album, acoustic live album so we kind of toured that for two years and it meant that we missed one because normally, you know, we do we have an album making year and then a touring year. So I sort of, we every two years, we make a new album, and the band's never really taken a break. So it just kind of kept, you know, keeps on going that way. So, we sort of missed we missed that year of songwriting and and we were just kind of itching to get into it and and you know, especially get back into making a rocking album because we you know obviously spent two years touring an acoustic one so we were really you know, itching to get out there and you know, plug the amps in and make some noise MAL- Were you writing this on the road? NIC- No and I we really didn't have anything. The only song that there's one song on the album with a song called 'Man On A Mission' which was a song that's been around that Leo had that's been around for I think was already around for the last production but we didn't take it and so other than that, no everything was all fresh and we just yeah, and it really happened quite easily actually, there weren't too many problems with it and a lot of ideas came and yeah, just just happened very organically and and we also we we had some friends come in and write with us as well. We had Francis Rossi came in for one song, good buddy of ours. And Eric Bazilian also from the Hooters. We did a couple of songs with him as well. Another really good friend of ours as well. And yeah, we just it was a really fun process, you know? And yeah, just just really, you know, making a good kind of rocking album. MAL- You did sort of mentioned like the vibe of the album, it does sound like you've just got, when you listen to it, from my point of view. It does sound like you've just walked into a party and the band's been there and they're in top gear, and they're just kicking along. It just sounds like a big party. NIC- Oh, cool. Well, thanks. That's, that's, that's a great compliment. I mean, that's, that's kind of what we were going for, you know, and we, we wanted to keep it also fairly raw, which is one of the reasons why also we took Paul Lani as co producing as well, which is that, you know, we actually we did the first album that I did the 'Firebirth' album with him as well, which we, you know, wanted a raw sound as well for that one, so, so it was kind of great. conscious idea to yet just to have a fairly raw, I mean, we even at one point we weren't sure that we were going to have keyboards even in it, we do have the Hammond in there but it's kind of, you know, it's kind of more there for colour rather than a feature and, and yes, good kind of raw album really. MAL- So that's coming out March 13. Good choice of date there obviously, what happens then? Another year of touring? NIC- Yeah, well we start, tour kicks off in mid April, European tour and and then we sort of have all the, you know, summer festivals. And yeah, it'll be you know, big touring year. So yeah, we actually really looking forward to getting out there again. MAL- What about taking it overseas? What's happening there? Have we not got passports? What's the deal? NIC- (Laughs), Well.. MAL- This is how us Australians ask questions right? NIC- Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, we do go to South America and we do go to Japan. But yeah, we haven't made it as far as Australia, unfortunately. I mean, I keep telling them you know, it's like well, you know, guys come on we're, you know, we're, we're in Japan here, we're not that far away. You know, we just could just gotta kind of jump across and we're there you know, so, but we Yeah, we've been talking about it quite a bit. And trying to we've, we have been actually trying to organise something so it'll hopefully it'll one of these days it will finally happen. You know, I'd absolutely love to play in Australia for sure. MAL- Now, not that I mind, but how did SOS gonna get on this album? NIC- Not that I mind, haha. Well, now we actually actually I got asked by the Swiss TV to they were doing a Christmas show like this, an ABBA tribute hing for Christmas and they were asking different singers to you know, who wanted to come in and and do a song. And I thought ABBA...., yeah, I dunno, I'm not too sure. But I thought I just said, Well, you know, give me a few days. Let me think about it. Let me see what I can do. MAL- 'Let me try and convince myself.' NIC- Yeah, well, I just thought I mean, you know, a good song's a good song. At the end of the day, I mean that they have, like them or not, they are amazing songwriters. So I thought, okay, so I listened to a few songs and then SOS seemed to be the one that I could kind of, you know, adapt the most, I suppose. And I and then I had a play around with it and kind of recorded it at my house just with piano and voice and just kind of, you know, did my own version of it, and just wanted to kind of keep it a bit darker and, and yeah, just I just thought, actually, that works quite well. So I said yes to the TV show. And then I just showed the guys you know, just for fun. I was just showing the guys at one of our songwriting sessions I was just I just showed the guys what I was doing with this ABBA thing and they loved it. They just sort of said, Hey, you know let's do it, and actually Leo turn around and say well actually, you know years ago before I was in the band they wanted to do a version of SOS they actually even recorded somewhere on a tape deck somewhere they have a version of them doing doing SOS so just kind Leo had been wanting to do it for a long time so yeah, we were just great let's let's make a GOTTHARD version of SOS you know and and WE kind of really wanted to also keep it keep it fairly dark and heavy you know. MAL- Now I've seen a film clip for Missteria which is very good. I think that the main what they call these days focus track? Yeah. What are other people interviewing you coming up with as their favourite song because I'll tell you right now that mine is 'No Time To Cry'. NIC- Aha MAL- How's that going in the polls? NIC- That one I haven't heard yet. MAL- Right. Okay, well, that's good. NIC- Yeah. But I mean, every actually, funnily enough, everybody seems to come up with a different one. MAL- Yeah, well, that's good. That is good. NIC- That's a good thing. Yeah. If you can kind of, you know, try and make everyone happy. MAL- Now, once again, I'll edit this out of the interview for obvious reasons. But I played, I'm a happily married man, and I played 'Marry Me' to my wife tonight, and I said, 'A young man could get himself laid playing this'. And she looked at me and she said, 'Or an old man'. NIC- Or an old man, for that matter, haha. MAL- She obviously meant me but yeah, so that's a good one. NIC- Well, yeah, well, actually, that's that's one of the ones that we actually funnily enough we, that was Eric, Eric Bazilian. He actually wrote that song. And there's a really nice story behind that one because he wrote that song and recorded it himself and played it to his wife as his marriage proposal, So that's actually how he proposed to his wife. He actually he took her to a restaurant. MAL- I sure as shit hope she said yes. NIC- Oh, yes, she did she. Well, yes, they've been happily married for years. They have all the kids now and everything so that Yeah, so he actually sat her down at the restaurant and put the headphones on her and then played her the song and it's basically his marriage proposal. But he'd never done anything with the song, you know, it was kind of a kind of his personal thing that he had and we were having a writing session with him and we finished I mean, it was it was already super late, you know, it was something like two or three in the morning or something and we were already kind of halfway through a bottle of whiskey. And he played us that song just just as you know, just talking about it. And Leo jumped on it. You know, he just sort of said, well, wow, you know, that's amazing, we've got to do something, we've got to record that. We've got to do it. So we were You know, we're still in studio, you know, so a bottle of whiskey later and four o'clock in the morning, we're downstairs recording it and and literally that's what you get so we didn't re-record it or anything, that's it that's actually the version that's on the album. We just added later on, we added some strings and a few other things but the acoustic guitars and the voice that's it. That's that's pretty much what it was. So, MAL- Too good a song or just be sitting there doing nothing, isn't it? NIC- Yeah, that was exactly what Leo was thinking, you know, he just heard it straight away. just jumped on it. You know, he's got a good ear for that stuff. You know, and yeah, so. So there you go. That's it's a good story I think. MAL- It's almost too good not to put in the interview that. NIC- Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. Yeah. Go for it. MAL- Nick. Absolutely great chatting to you about the new GOTTHARD album, '13' coming out on March 13. Sounds fantastic. I love it. All the best of success with it and maybe just on a personal level might see you at one of these summer festivals in Europe later on in the year. NIC- That'll be great. And yeah, hey thanks for having me and yeah, have a good one. Comments are closed.
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